Where Is Mar-A-Lago? Trump May Host China’s Xi Jinping At ‘Southern White House’
President Donald Trump may host Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida next month, despite mounting criticism against the president’s use of the property as the “Southern White House.”
Xi is set to visit the United States for a summit possibly aimed at reduction of tensions between the two countries. Relations between China and the U.S. have been high over the South China Sea dispute and U.S.’ decision to deploy an anti-missile defense system in China’s neighboring state of South Korea against the emerging nuclear threat from North Korea, which has been a longtime ally of China.
Read: Trump’s Florida Estate Mar-a-Lago, Or The Winter White House, May Not Be Secure Enough For President
According to officials familiar with planning Xi’s time in the U.S., the meeting will tentatively be held on April 6-7 and not include any “golf diplomacy,” news media company Axios reported Monday.
Trump has previously hosted Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at Mar-a-Lago and has also spent numerous weekends there, taking a break from his time in Washington DC. This has raised a number of issues over the security available at the estate in Palm Beach, Florida, as former Secret Service and intelligence officials voice their concerns about Mar-a-Lago being a potential national security threat.
“The president is the biggest, richest intelligence target in the world, and there is almost no limit to the energy and money an adversary will spend to get at him,” said David Kris, a former Obama-era assistant attorney general for national security told Politico.
While visitors at the White House undergo a thorough background check before being let in — including their Social Security number, city of residence and country of birth — there are no similar measures in place for Mar-a-Lago.
Visitors at the estate are required to go through multiple security checkpoints but only one photo ID is required to be produced, and the club, which is also a venue for ticketed public events, does not ask for personal details from guests as they enter the main gate.
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